Week 4: Chewbacca

Chewbacca was the fourth of the action figures originally released in the Early Bird set in 1977, making his carded debut not long after as one of the initial line of figures on a Star Wars 12 back card. As was common for 1977 the sculpt of this action figure is very basic, with the head and body all being molded into one large piece. With the exception of the bandolier belt and the hip pouch the detail on this figure is limited to the wavy lines intended to represent the wookie fur. Production and sculpting limitations of the time aside, this figure, one of the tallest in the line, was one of the few figures to remain unchanged throughout the entire vintage line (1977 to 1985).

The Chewbacca figure was one of several to undergo a card photo upgrade during the Return of the Jedi run of figures. The basic/original figure can be found on all three movie cards (SW, ESB & ROTJ). An updated photo can then also be found on ROTJ card, and it is this revised photo that also appears on the Power of the Force (POTF) card with the collector coin. Picture of the Star Wars 12-back Chewie taken from: www.12-back.com

This figure, not unsurprisingly due to its lack of detail, is one of the few that has no major variations. Although, there are a few. The original Early Bird Set packaged figures did come with a greenish tinted bowcaster weapon, although there is no evidence that this weapon variation was limited only to the Early Bird sets. In addition, there are some figures that have been seen with a metallic green painted hip pouch. Chewbacca figures sold as "Green Limbed" variants are usually figures suffering from plastic discoloration and degradation rather than true variations. In addition to Palitoy or other foreign variants, another variant figure is the Glasslite Chewbacca figure from Brazil. Released in the late 80's the Glasslite line has several interesting variations including Chewbacca. As you can see from the pic I took from www.toysrgus.com, this Chewbacca variation comes with an unpainted bag and vintage Zuckuss gun! 

The common Kenner Chewbacca is not a hard figure to find in good condition (as there is very little paintwork on him to have gotten scratched!) Chewbacca figures normally go pretty cheaply and expect to pay on average $5 or so if you buy on ebay and around $12 if you buy from reasonably priced online toy stores like The Earth Toy Mall.

Carded examples can range from $150-$250+ for a good condition 12 back to less than $50 for the more common ROTJ revised photo item. All prices are of course depending on condition, rarity, etc. 

Thanks Rik Biel for the bulk of this write up as well as the pic of the alternate pic ROTJ Chewbacca figure. Rik wanted to help out and do a few of these and I really appreciate his help with this. 

This concludes the first four "Early Bird" figures and next week I think I will throw in a vintage vehicle to mix it up a bit. 

 Thanks for reading!